“They are not doing anything different. They are playing with more passion, more together, they are playing like they want to play for their coach,” James said. “It sucks that Avery had to take the hit of them not wanting to play at a high level, but that’s what it looks like to me. They haven’t changed their offense, they haven’t changed their defense. They’ve picked it up in intensity level and you can tell they like to play for PJ.”

Unlike the Heat, who play hard every night?

Johnson was an old-school coach — hard on players and often a micromanager — but that tends to wear on teams after a while. Carlesimo is a little looser with the reins and the Nets have responded to that. The other big key was getting All-Star Brook Lopez back and fully healthy.

I think LeBron was simply saying what he saw and thought there, but you know that is going to anger a few Booklynites.

He is a public figure, and doesn’t shy away from being so. Giving the guy grief and saying he quit on Cleveland isn’t really over the line, just immature, bustin’-his-balls kinda stuff. He did leave Cleveland after all, which was his right to do so, and fans have the right to not like it.

I think maybe P.J. learned his lesson a long time ago with Latrell Spreewell and that chocking incident and not head coaching for a while or as often, or, assitant coaching and feeling he could be head coaching; and he probably made the effort to improve that part of his personality(?). Also, I’m not sure but I think P.J. used to be an “in your face screaming type of coach” and it would appear to me that Johnson was probably the same way(?), maybe, and perhaps in became more and more unpleasant to play for someone like that, especially if they did not fundamentally like “him”. Maybe Tom Tibodeau of the Bulls is from that school (of which I am unsure) but his players seem to really like “him”… a lot. Avery seems like he would be a drag to play for, even if the team is winning and this team just stopped responding.

If you’re not from Ohio, then you’ll never really be able to understand how heartbreaking it was to watch the decision. It was a betrayal for one of our own, one of the greatest players ever, to leave. So forgive us for holding a grudge. You would do EXACTLY THE SAME.